Venus Williams overcomes match-point downpour to beat Daria Kasatkina

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic returns to USA player Sam Querrey during their men’s singles third round match on Friday.

McHale got even closer to pulling off the win on Friday, taking Serena to 4-4 in the third set before the World No.1 broke to 5-4 and served out the match with three aces in the final game. “He’s a great guy, a really good player, big champion”.

Djokovic, the 12-time Grand Slam victor, will level with Rod Laver’s mark of 31 successive major wins if overcomes Querry. He’s unbelievable player on the court.

The interruption didn’t seem to affect Venus’s momentum. McHale then saved three break points to go ahead 3-2.

Murray, the 2013 champion at the All England Club, played his match on Centre Court, starting with the roof open but finishing with it closed after a rain delay.

If the first one didn’t affect the experienced player, this second one completely turned the flow of the match. The award-winning writer has covered Chicago sports for most of her 32-year career, including at the Chicago Tribune, before joining ESPN in 2009, and has also covered tennis since 1986.

“I felt like I was definitely in warrior mode”.

Kasatkina, 19, demonstrated clearly how she has leapt 128 places up the rankings in the a year ago, saving two match points, one after a lengthy rain stoppage, before going down 7-5 4-6 10-8.

Williams missed a host of opportunities in the opening set, converting 1 of 9 break-point opportunities while donating 16 unforced errors.

Williams first took out her frustrations on her racquet after losing the first set tiebreaker, and later flung it onto the turf as she went 0-2 down in the second set. Serena got mad, then turned on the jets to run away with the match 7-7 (7), 6-2, 6-4 for her ninth straight win at Wimbledon.

Organizers made a decision to play on Sunday for only the fourth time in the tournament’s 139-year history after severe delays because of rain.

It was a tight affair in the opening set which required a tie-break to separate them before Kerber raced away with the second, 6-1 to wrap things up and she admitted that she, too, had found it hard to cope with the conditions.

Williams came back over an hour later only to watch Kasatkina save that match point.

The third set saw both players very solid on their service games, putting pressure with their shots to claim quick and clear holds. Probably not ideal. She handled it well, she played smart. I can’t say that I’ve ever had a rain delay at match point.

For a seven-time champion who is a month shy of his 35th birthday, and is known to have a dodgy back, fate could not have dealt Roger Federer a better hand this week as he became the first, and so far only, man to reach the Wimbledon fourth round.

“This has got to be something out of a movie, this is what I thought, ” said Venus, who has played more than six hours over two days, including doubles with her sister.